SUPERCHARGED Audio Wednesdays
Krafty Kuts plays the last Wednesday of the month (24th) but the former breaks knees up is all about the d’n’b this month with two of the best DJs from outside of Brighton popping to town. Andy C (10th) is obvious a legend but we can’t get enough of Brazil’s DJ Marky (17th) who always adds a bit of sunshine to his showy sets. (JK)
STEADY ON Funky Buddha Thursdays
The last time that Tru Thoughts did a weekly night was Phonic:Hoop which was a huge amount of fun, especially the night Tom Middleton played. Well, Rob Luis is back behind the decks on a weekly basis with fellow Phonic regular Hint. The music policy covers the wide remit of “beats, soul, dubstep, jazz, bass wobblers, disco, hip hop, boogie, funk and drum’n’bass”, which ought to keep them in tunes. After NYE’s sold out session, 4th sees Maddslinky (aka Zed Bias), while 28th is an album launch for Zero dB’s latest. Can’t argue with that for a free night. (JK)
PUSSYCAT CLUB Digital Sat 6th
You can’t go wrong with the Pussycat Club if you’re looking for a fun night out and this month sees an ‘All That Glitters’ production, featuring multi-screen projections, performers and dancers, a dressing up box with makeovers and photo shoots and an unseemly amount of glitter. All well and good, but add in the best of funky electro, dirty house, twisted tech and indie dance and you’ve got yourself a top night out right there. (NC)
SCHIZOTHEQUE Micro Sat 6th
New to Digital’s autonomous send room is this night of bass-junk-rave-punk-tech-crunk-gutter-funk. Attendees are invited to create a new character for the evening, based on computer games and TV shows, which could admittedly go one of two ways – a room full of Lara Crofts fending off a load of tumescent Triggers from Only Fools & Horses might not make for the best night out, but it’s definitely one of the most interesting nights this month. (NC)
MASSIVE ATTACK Dome Tues 9th
The new Massive album actually sounds quite promising. There’s still a dark, smoky fug to it but the collaborators seem to have added a bit more variety than the last outing. Horace Andy is joined by Tricky’s girl Martin Topley-Bird, TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and Elbow fella Guy Garvey. Most of those guys won’t turn up for this gig, especially Damon Albarn who was a hard taskmaster in the studio. “I want to work with you, but I’m not getting sucked into some nine-year-long Bristol dope-haze,” he told the band. Quite right too. (JK)
SURKIN Concorde Fri 12th
The ‘Next Of Kin’ fella couldn’t be more French if his parents were actually Bangalter and Guy-Manuel and he made a song called ‘Je Suis Une Pamplemousse’ by banging two croissants together on the top of the Eiffel Tower while chatting up your girlfriend. But that’s not a bad thing when his synthy-electro is this good. Another good booking for Horse Power. (JK)
SLUTDISKO Cowley Club Sat 13th
One of Brighton’s best-kept secrets (whoops!), this heady concoction of live bands, naked Barbie bunting, cheap-as-chips booze, vegan cake at 2am, occasional unplanned nudity, and a playlist that ranges from reggae remixes of The Gossip to Taylor Dayne has been attracting misfits of all colours and sexual persuasions since 2008. This month’s anti-Valentine theme is “Non-romantic New Romantic”, so leave the love hearts and teddy bears at home, embalm your face in Stargazer White and “embrace your inner slut”. (CB)
DONKY PITCH Jazz Place Thurs 18th The Donky Pitch crew continue to cement their position as innovative front-runners in Brighton’s clubbing scene (why they haven’t been given a Friday night yet is quite beyond us). Their first major outing of 2010 looks set to be rather special. Expect to be treated to a live set from Parisian synth magician, Debruit, who makes a kind of crunky hip-hop that is all his own. Brighton’s own synthetic funk-master Boss Kite will also be making jaws drop with his melodic yet bass-heavy skweee. If you still don’t know what skweee is then get down to The Globe on the 2nd when the Donky Pitchers will be screening a film all about it. (DA)
ANOTHER SUNNY DAY Tom’s Bar Sat 20th The land of the twee, irregular indiepop club Another Sunny Day moves to a suitably tiny home at Tom’s basement, just in time for 2010’s cutie revival. As pop continues to eat itself, Rough Trade Shops have fired the starter with their Indiepop 09 compilation (with our Bobby McGees and Shrag on board), while anglophile acolytes The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and The Drums are dropping Sarah Records references all over the place. We’ll have some 14 Iced Bears, please. (SH)
SINDEN Digital Sat 20th
A couple of years ago journalists started calling indie bands nu rave but they should have keep hold of the term a little long and used if for modern electro. What Sinden and his sensei Switch play is purely an update of what people jumped about in fields to. Sinden gets a bit more ghetto than most, especially with his work and The Count & Sinden with Hervé, which heads from fucked up jungle to fucked hip hop and back again. Ten minutes before we wrote Twitter informed us that the pair had ‘nailed’ another track. This Blah Blah Blah session will be fun if nothing else. (JK)
DA DOO RON RON Komedia Sat 27th
Dionne Warwick – being celebrated with a Da Doo special tonight – is every bit as good a singer as Aretha, maybe better. There, we’ve said it. She got to all of Bacharach & David’s songs first cos they wrote all those classics (‘Walk On By’, ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ ‘Do You Know The Way To San Jose’) just for her. OK, so Aretha’s ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ is better than Dionne’s but give her a break, she nailed everything else. Get the CD too, it’s ace. (JK)
KILL EM ALL Coalition Fri 26th Feb
The fact that Justice, Erol Alkan, Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco, Friendly Fires and Late of The Pier have all enjoyed slots at the London version of this legendary night bodes very well for the mix of indie and dance working very well on the coast. This second month sees Micachu take to the decks with resident Riton and Kill Em All originators Filthy Dukes, while O.Children play live. It’s not a long way from the stunning line-ups they have at Fabric. Pleased to see they’re not resting on their Big Smoke reputation. (JK)
Words by Dominic Ashton, Colette Bernhardt, Nick Coquet, Stuart Huggett and James Kendall